Joan of Arc ring stays in France

Joan of Arc ring stays in France after appeal to Queen | World news | The Guardian

A ring believed to have belonged to Joan of Arc has gone on display in France after its new owners made an appeal to the Queen to keep it out of the hands of its historic rival across the Channel.

French historical theme park Le Puy du Fou bought the 15th-century gold-plated silver ring at auction in London in February for £300,000 but was told after it had arrived in France that it had not obtained the necessary export licence for a historical artefact.

Arts Council England, which oversees the export regulations, said the ring should be returned to Britain.

Puy du Fou president Nicolas de Villiers, whose father Philippe, a French politician, founded the theme park, said there had never been any question of returning the ring.

Continue reading rest of article here ->> Australian Edition of The Guardian

Ring 'belonging to Joan of Arc' is set to go under the hammer at auction

Ring 'belonging to Joan of Arc' is set to go under the hammer at auction | Daily Mail Online

A 15th century ring believed to have been owned by Joan of Arc will go under the hammer in London.

The ring, thought to have been worn by the patron saint before her death and handed down through King Henry VII, is set to be auctioned in February.

The piece is said to have been given to the French heroine by her parents before she was burned at the stake by the British when she was just 19 years old in 1431.

The ring matches a description, revealed in transcripts, given by Joan of Arc herself during the trial which resulted in her death.

She said it has the inscription 'Jhesus Maria' as well as three crosses, and was made from either gold or brass. She claimed it was on her hand when she touched St Catherine, who appeared before her in a vision.

Debate on French Royal Head

Further on from my post "Henri IV of France Identified" back in 16th December 2010 and the post from Live Science of 14th December 2010 (Mummy Head (and Brain) Identified as Long-Lost French King), comes this series of articles now doubting the identification of the royal skull.

PhysOrg: French King Henri IV's Head Stars In Forensic Dispute:

Doubt - and a reportedly royal severed head - haunts a murky corner of forensic science these days, as researchers squabble over an unearthed packet of mummified remains thought to have belonged to King Henry IV of France.

At the heart of the macabre drama is an embalmed head with several vertebrae still attached. The remains were found in 1919 in the Royal Basilica of St. Denis outside Paris and reportedly secreted away by a civil servant. Reappearing almost a century later, the specimen still had its soft tissue and organs intact, right down to the open mouth and partially closed eyes.

From the South China Morning Post: Forensic scientists in debate over head of King Henry IV of France:

Obtaining a sample of the mummified tissue, they conducted a genetic analysis and compared it with DNA samples given by three male descendants. Analysing the Y chromosome of the three descendants, and genes that reveal matrilineal descent, they found similarities among the three descendants. But none matched the disembodied head.

The team further compared the Y chromosome taken from the mysterious head with that taken from a blood-soaked handkerchief said to contain the genetic material of Louis XVI. The two samples did not match.

From Newser: Does This Head Belong To France's Henri IV?

Forensic researchers have a royal dispute on their hands: They can't agree on whether a mummified head belongs to France's Henry IV, explains the Los Angeles Times. The question seemed settled in 2010 when a team of researchers used facial-reconstruction techniques to conclude that it was indeed "Good King Henry," who was assassinated in 1610. But now a second team of scientists says it isn't so because DNA tests don't match Henry's living relatives.

From Fox News - Live Science: Lost Kings: DNA Fails To Solve History Mysteries:

The tale of the head and the gourd, however, is not quite so straightforward. In 2010, a forensic analysis suggested the head belonged to French King Henry IV. DNA later linked the head to the blood in the gourd, leading researchers to identify the blood's owner as Henry's descendant, French King Louis XVI. Now, however, a second DNA analysis has thrown those findings into disarray, suggesting perhaps the head and the blood belong not to royalty, but to nobodies.

From The Independent: Academics Scratch Heads Over Mystery of French King's Skull:

Four academics – including two who contributed to a report in the British Medical Journal which claimed a skull found in 1919 was the head of Henri IV – have now challenged the research after new DNA tests cast doubt on the authenticity of the remains.

The original report, published in the BMJ in December 2010, saw France’s pre-eminent forensic examiner, Dr Phillipe Charlier, and his team identify the partly preserved severed head as that of the monarch, who was assassinated in 1610 and is famous for ending the country’s religious wars.

From UPI: Forensic Researchers Debate Whether Head Belongs To Henry IV:

Forensic researchers have a royal dilemma on their hands: They can't reach consensus on whether a mummified head belongs to Henry IV of France.

In 2010, a team of researchers used facial-reconstruction techniques to conclude that it was indeed "Good King Henry," who was assassinated in 1610.

The case seemed closed.

Now, a second team of scientists says it can't be the royal head, since DNA tests do not match Henry's living descendants.

Queen's Hairpin Found

From Hurriyet Daily News:

A hairpin belonging to 16th century French Queen Catherine de Medici has been discovered at a royal residence outside Paris. What has conservators scratching their heads is exactly where it was found: down a communal toilet.

Officials said it’s the first time in modern history that a possession of the Renaissance royal has been found at Fontainebleau Palace. Though the queen was renowned across Europe for her lavish jewelry, much of her collection has been lost, sold or stolen over the centuries.

The rare 9 centimeter-pin was identified easily because it bore interlocking C’s - for “Catherine.” The artifact was found by accident as archeologists dug around the toilet to prepare the surrounding area for restoration.

Droguet called the find a “mystery.” “But what would Catherine de Medici be doing there? Maybe it was a lady-in-waiting who took it. Perhaps it just fell in.”

Les Enfants X - The Sous X Law

From the Independent:

The rights of a child to know its parents are written into international law, but in France that doesn't mean very much.

Here is one of the few countries in Europe where children can be born without officially having any parents. The result is generations of Les Enfants X, and enough sorrow to fill the Seine.

The roots of the tradition of women having the right to give birth in secret lie deep in French history. The practice was codified during the Revolution, which introduced the principle that abandoned infants would become charges of the state, or pupilles de l'état.

For most of its history, the law has been aimed at shielding the mothers of illegitimate children, and at discouraging infanticide, abortion and the use of any sort of contraceptive practice.

Closure: Joan of Arc Museum

From Mail Online:

A museum detailing the life and death of the French heroine Joan of Arc could close if nobody offers to buy it.

Opened when patriotism was at its highest in 1955 and regularly visited by the French, eager to learn more about their past.

But now, nearly 40 years later it is thought a lack of interest in history and Joan of Arc has meant the French have turned their back on one of their most famous heroines whose death became a defining moment in history.

Burned at the stake by the English in 1431 in Rouen, a Normandy town, the museum sits in the same square where she perished.

Alain Preaux, the owner of the Musee Jeanne D'Arc is now being forced to shut up shop after being at the helm since 1977 and says that he has more British visitors than French.

The Princess of Montpensier

From Film Journal:

It’s not easy to make a 140-minute Medieval-set film, even one about sexual desire and rivalry, pulse with passion. That is the challenge veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier grapples with in The Princess of Montpensier, his middling adaptation of Madame de La Fayette’s short story about various men vying for the affections of an unhappy princess in 16th-century France.

Tavernier has assembled a cast of rising young stars to inject some heat into the handsomely mounted proceedings, but what their photogenic presence and the director’s own agility behind the camera can’t give the film is a sense of urgency. Despite the intelligence and savoir-faire that clearly went into making The Princess of Montpensier, the movie gives the impression of going through the motions rather than engaging the viewer with its ideas and images, which mostly feel familiar.

Set against the backdrop of the war between Catholics and Protestants, The Princess of Montpensier centers on a young heiress, Marie de Mezieres (Melanie Thierry), and the different men who, to varying degrees, love her, want her, revere her, and resent her: the insecure prince whom she is forced to marry (Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet); the prince’s cousin, a studly knight with questionable intentions (Gaspard Ulliel); a quick-witted duke with a devilish gleam in his eye (Raphael Personnaz); and the count of Chabannes (Lambert Wilson), a retired warrior who becomes Marie’s tutor and pines for her from the sidelines in what is by far the film’s most persuasive and palpable emotion.

Joan of Arc - Another Theory

I have shamelessly poached this topic from a history forum, which posed the question back in 2006 - was Joan of Arc really a man.  Now, the thinking behind this was related to a medical condition known as "testicular feminization syndrome" or "complete androgen insensitivity syndrome".

From the website: "The complete androgen insensitivity syndrome is usually detected at puberty when a girl should but does not begin to menstruate. Many of the girls with the syndrome have no pubic or axillary (armpit) hair. They have luxuriant scalp hair without temporal (male-pattern) balding. They are sterile and cannot bear children."

What do we know of Joan that might fall into the above catergory.

1. There was no obvious signs of menstration.

2. She bore no children - child bearing would have been common for a girl of her age - and engaged in no known sexual activity.

3. Despite the saintly modern day depictions, Joan was, by nature of her ancestry, considered to have been short, dark complexioned and swarthy - almost masculine in appearance.

4. Yes she did undergo an "inspection" to ascertain that she was still "virgo intacta" - but would those women who examined her have been at all familiar with a medical condition in which a male took upon, to all intents and purposes, female form.  And quite frankly, no man would have undertaken such an intimate examination of a woman.

5. The Duke of Alencon, in his later reflections on Joan, was said to have remarked "... it was if she had known how to be a man-at-armss following the wars since her youth.."  And the Burgundian Chronicler Georges Chastellain also commented on her manly skills.

So, just as there is the mystery of Pope Joan - could we have the mystery of John of Arc??

Françoise Giroud - Warrior

From the Jewish Daily Forward:

To many, Françoise Giroud, born Lea France Gourdji in September 1916 to Turkish-Jewish parents, was an example of a woman who handled power with uncommon grace. Giroud, who died in January 2003 at age 86, served as France’s minister of culture. In 1953, she co-founded the influential political weekly L’Express to advance the agenda of French-Jewish politician Pierre Mendès France, who soon after was elected prime minister. Journalist for a number of leading weeklies and author of more than two dozen books, from novels to biographies (of Alma Mahler and of Karl Marx’s wife, Jenny, among other liberated women), and advocate of women’s rights, Giroud epitomized a successful career woman at a time when such were still rare in France.

Yet, as “Françoise,” an admiring, unsparing new biography that appeared from Les editions Grasset on the anniversary of her death, January 19, underlines, Giroud’s success came at the cost of genuine inner torment. The book’s author, Laure Adler, herself a noted journalist, quotes eminent French-Jewish statesman Robert Badinter, who states that Giroud was a “warrior.” And indeed, she had plenty to fight against during her long and storied career.

Magdalene de Saint Nectaire

Extract from "The Percy Anecdotes" (pub: 1839):

Magdalene de Saint Nectaire, the widow of Gui de Saint Exaperi, was a protestant, and distinguished herself very much m the civil wars of France. After her husband's death, she retired to her chateau at Miremont, in the Limousin, where, with sixty young gentlemen, she used to make excursions upon the catholic armies in the neighborhood. In lhe year. 1575, M. Montel, governor of the province, having had his detachments often defeated by this extraordinary lady, took the resolution to besiege her in her chateau with fifteen hundred foot and fifty horse. She sallied out upon him, and defeated his troops. On returning, however, to her chateau, and finding it in the possession of the enemy, she galloped to a neighboring town, Turrenne, to procure a reinforcement for her little army. Montel watched for ber in a defile; Imt his troops were defeated, and himself mortally wounded.